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POSSIBLE EXPANSION OF SHAD-HATCHERY WORK 

^* 

By S. G. Worth 

Superintendent V. S. Fisheries Station, Edenton, N. C. 

J* 

Paper presented before the Fourth International Fishery Congress 
held at Washington, U. S. A., September 22 to 26, 1908 

BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES : : : t : : VOL. XXVIII. P. 789-793 
Document No. 678 :::::::: ::::::::::::: Issued April. 1910 



789 






APR 16 1910 



POSSIBLE EXPANSION OF SHAD-HATCHERY WORK. 



By S. G. WORTH, 
Superintendent U. S. Fisheries Station, Edenton, N. C. 



In the past thirty years the methods of shad hatchmg and distribution have 
been carried to a high degree of excellence, and it may be said that little is left 
to be desired in these branches of fish -cultural work. There is an invitation to 
greater effectiveness, however, in the possibility of carrying the hatchery work 
beyond its present scope into rearing methods, so that the young fish may be 
planted after they have reached the fingerling stage and thus enter the open 
waters with greater chances of survival. 

It has been exceptional to employ a gravity supply of water in any shad 
hatchery, the shad-spawning area being in the coastal plain region where tide 
water or equivalent conditions precludes the idea of dams, waterfalls, and reser- 
voirs. If lunar tides do not exist then there are wind tides ; there are no constant 
downward flowing streams in the spawning neighborhoods, or if any such exist 
the country is too low to permit the utilization of the flow. Hence nearly all 
shad hatching has been conducted in water supplied by steam pumps, with the 
expense of which it has been regarded as impracticable to undertake pond work 
of any kind at the shad-hatching stations. The activities have thus been 
concentrated upon hatching eggs and liberating the embryo fish product, 
attempt to carry the work beyond this point being exceptional. It was limited, 
in fact, to the Fish Ponds, Washington, D. C, a station now abandoned. 

At that station, however, the rearing of shad was taken up in 1888, and con- 
tinued until the abandonment of the establishment, in 1906, with highly satis- 
factory results. In the Commissioner's Report for 1888, page xxviii, appears 
the following statement : 

Nearly 3,000,000 shad fry were placed in the west pond in May, 1888. These were 
held in the ponds during the summer, but were not fed; on the natural food found 
in the ponds they made rapid growth. In October, when the young shad were released 
in the Potomac River, they had attained the average length of 3 inches. It was not 
possible to determine by actual count the number of fish liberated, but conservative 
estimates placed the number at 50 per cent of the number of fry placed in the pond. 
These results were as satisfactory as they were unexpected, and indicated a new departure 
in fish-cultural work which promises important consequences. 

791 



792 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 

The experience of 1 888 was repeated with scarcely a variation for ten years 
or more. In other words, the rearing of shad fry was a success throughout. In 
my intimate association with the Fish Ponds and the Superintendent, the late 
Rudolph Hessel, and with the Central Station, which supplied the fry, I heard 
no suggestion of disappointment from any source. On one occasion I under- 
stood that some of the fingerling fish, on close examination, were found to be 
alewives, or river herring, but it may be said that any pond of a tidal or semi- 
tidal kind in the region of the river herrings is almost sure to contain some of 
their young. In the experimental ponds at Edenton Station the screens were 
kept in all the time and adult herring could not enter, but eggs were deposited 
on the outer surface of the wire mesh and the resultant fry, along with many 
others, perhaps, swam through the meshes. In fact, any screen that would allow 
the water to drain or waste from a pond would scarcely exclude the minute 
young of the river herrings. A noteworthy feature of the shad-rearing in 
connection with the work at the Fish Ponds, in view of the successful results, 
was the inferior quality of the fry supplied to the station. I personally know 
that, for a number of seasons, it was "the weak fry," "the early and weak 
fry " — fry that were of less than average vitality — that were consigned for these 
experiments. 

Not only was the rearing of shad at the Fish Ponds a striking success, but 
an experiment at the more distant Neosho Station, in Missouri, under the late 
Superintendent William F. Page, was equally gratifying. In the commissioner's 
report for 1893, vSuperintendent Page says: 

In addition, 200,000 fingerling shad were liberated in waters tributary to the Gulf 
of Mexico. Their number could not be ascertained except by estimate, owing to the 
fact that these fish can not be successfully handled. They were the product of 700,000 
fry sent from Washington in the preceding June. In preparing for their release the 
hatchery branch was, in October, cleared of shoals, drifts, and aquatic plants for three- 
quarters of a mile, to a point where it empties into Hickory Creek. Earlyin November, 
when the branch was swollen by rain water, the 6-months-old fish were allowed to pass 
through open gates. They were some hours in escaping — a continuous silvery mass. 
These were the first fingerling shad planted in waters tributary to the Gulf of Mexico. 

It will be well to note also what follows in Mr. Page's accoimt, as below: 
The pond which contained the shad was infested with crawfish, i ,750 pounds being 
removed and destroyed between August 3 and October 31. These were estimated 
to be 70,000 in number. By some unaccountable means black bass of the large-mouthed 
variety were also present. In preparing for receipt of the shad the pond had been 
drawn in November, 1891, and the bottom exposed for three weeks, and in the following 
April the process was repeated, all water connections with black bass ponds having 
been broken and an independent supply being established. On August 3, the intruding 
fish being observed, a hook and line were brought into use, and on the first day 5, averag- 
ing lyi pounds each, were caught, and by October 31 the catch had reached a total 
of 152. It is believed that they burrowed in the mud, sur\-iving the absence of water 
during the two periods mentioned. 



POSSIBLE EXPANSION OF SHAD-HATCHERY WORK. 793 

The fish-cultural reputations of both Mr. Hessel and Mr. Page assure accept- 
ance of their figures; and we know, of course, that no river herrings were among 
the fingerlings released from Neosho station, while the large output notwith- 
standing the crawfish and intruding black bass is a demonstration of the 
certainty of results in shad rearing where the right kind of ponds are employed. 

The simplicity and the minimized cost in the rearing of shad makes it entirely 
practicable to entertain the idea that perhaps all of the output of the shad 
hatcheries might, in a short time, be subjected to the process. Deep ponds are 
not required, 3-feet depth being ample. Necessary conditions are to have 
ponds so arranged that the fingerlings require no handling — for their scales drop 
off at a mere touch — and to exclude as many natural enemies as possible. The 
first condition can be secured in either tidal or upland ponds, for the latter can 
be arranged in a series of two or more, each one backing the head of water 
against the gates of the next higher, the one nearest the stream being tidal 
or semitidal. The uppermost ponds could be emptied serially into the next 
lower down until the one next the stream contained all, when its gates could 
be opened. In tidal ponds there would be difficulty in excluding natural ene- 
mies, owing to the impossibility, ordinarily, of drying the bottom and keeping 
it exposed. 

Lands available for the desired purposes are to be found throughout the 
shad region, and twenty years ago I pointed out the ponds used as meadows 
by farmers below Gloucester City, N. J., as exactly adapted to such use, they hav- 
ing automatic gates which turned rain water out at low tide and closed against 
the rising Delaware River lunar tides. Lands suitable for shad-rearing ponds 
would as a rule, be too low for agriculture, and their market price, or annual 
rental, would be inconsiderable. It has not been determined how large the 
ponds should be, but the one so long used for rearing at Washington contained 
about 5 acres. While such work should be directed intelligently, the chief cost 
would be the maintenance of a faithful watchman during the few months the 
shad were held. 

In view of the extraordinary interest that attaches to the shad along so great 
■ a seaboard — Maine to Florida — by all citizens, of all degrees and conditions, 

and with the renown that shad culture has brought to its originators and sus- 
tainers, the work would seem to merit the bestowal of all rational culture methods 
that are really apparent. The rearing of the young fish can not be considered 
other than a strictly rational proposition, while, at the same time, it has passed 
all experimental stages. Welcome the day when all the shad fry produced at 
the shad-cultural stations shall be reared to fingerling size before being liberated 
in the open waters. 



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